King’s Korner – LA SX, My Time, Reedy, More

Jeremy McGrath is the “King” of Supercross. He helped popularize this sport, in a way that no other had, or has, ever. Supercross is an off-shoot of motocross, but held inside major stadium venues that normally have NFL football or MLB baseball.

Seven times Jeremy has won the coveted AMA Supercross Championship – the most prestigious in off-road motorcycle racing. The most Championships ever in the history of the sport. 72 Main Event wins – again, the most ever in the history of the sport. He also won the 1995 AMA 250 National MX outdoor title.

This is Jeremy’s blog, entitled “King’s Korner”.

The crash: First off, I would like to talk about the big crash that happened this past weekend at the Los Angeles Supercross at Dodger Stadium, involving Trey Canard and Ryan Morais. It was not good. However, I don’t believe that Trey crashed because of the tuff block cover. He must have seen something that he didn’t like, which is why he didn’t do the triple jump. It’s a little crazy and mysterious as to why Ryan did jump, and I don’t know why either. But those are the risks you take in professional motorcycle racing.

I’ve hooked those types of tuff block covers a hundred times, and as a rider, you don’t really know that a cover is on your footpeg until it gets caught up in the rear wheel, which is when it begins to drag the power down.

There should be some discussion about the material used to make the covers, and something should be done to keep the covers on the track, and off the bikes. Regardless, I still do not believe a tuff block cover was the cause of the problem.

The race: As far as the racing this season in Supercross goes, this past weekend was a huge step for Chad Reed. I haven’t seen him ride like that since before his big crash at Millville last year. Something just seemed to click this week for him, and I was super impressed and hope that he can keep that momentum rolling. Overall, I’m stoked for both Chad and Honda.

Working for Honda: My duties with Honda are for testing and development – specifically for the supercross / motocross race team; for both Trey Canard and Justin Brayton. Racers often don’t have the time to go out and test every week. They need to concentrate on their main job of practicing, getting to the gym, and racing.

For me, being involved in a testing capacity with the race team is nice. Before the Supercross season starts, I will be out at the Honda test track a few days per week, but right now with the season going, it’s a bit more off and on. Right now we have the bikes where the guys really like them. But, for example, next week we will be trying out a few new things, so testing is a continual process – but at the same time, once the season begins, our testing is a bit more relaxed.

Off-road truck racing: For the off-road side of things, one of the negative parts about racing trucks is that you don’t get very much time in the actual truck for testing or practice. Growing up as a motocross rider, getting out to practice wasn’t a big hassle; you just load up the bike and go. For off-road truck racing, the truck is so expensive, you need five or six guys to go out with you, and stuff breaks all the time. It costs so much money every time you practice, you only get to drive once in a while. Typically, we will test only once between races. It’s the offseason right now, so we are doing our testing for the 2012 season, and we will get about eight days of testing in before the first race at the end of March.

That’s why it’s hard to catch up the guys who are really good and have been doing it for 20 years. There’s no way you can go out and practice more than they do because it just costs too much money. If you had millions and millions of dollars to waste then you could treat it like motocross, but otherwise it’s impossible.

Home and Family: Some of my friends call me the “busiest retiree” they’ve ever met. Really, I’m just trying to keep the “Jeremy McGrath” brand going. At what point do I draw the line though? I still enjoy all of the things that I’m doing and they do not feel like work to me. Some weeks I’m really busy, but then other weeks I might have a lot of time to myself, my family, and my kids. During the week, I take my daughters to school and get to spend time with my wife. Family time is very important to me.